Thelodus: Slants of the Mind
by Helena Valentine
Summary: This is the sequal to Thelodus, my other story. It would probably be a good idea to read that first, considering it will mean what you read in this one will make more sense. Maybe...
1. Light

Writer: Hello, I'm back! And less incredibly depressing and droning on and on, though there will be droning on and on and depressing talk, that's just the way I am. Not in the story though. In case you didn't find out in the little summery below the title, this is the sequal to Thelodus, with all the OC characters in it from last time, simply because I missed them. I'm going to warn you though that I will be updating less often in this one because of school and pretty soon work and writing my own stories which I hope will get published, and all in all having at least a little bit of a life. I will update though, and I'll probably update sooner if too many people bug me about it, so post reviews if you even remotely like my writing at all. Special thanks to all who reviewed the last story, especially Epalladino. Ok, here you go:

Disclaimer: I don't own Hellboy. I will not own Hellboy when I post more disclaimers and I will not own Hellboy when I completely forget to post disclaimers.

A cool breeze ruffles the soft curtains over the small window, cloth rustling against cloth as it lifts into the air. Wind brushes my face in a soft caress, like a weathered old hand running down my cheek. Flecks of water carry with it, so the wind feels almost like ocean breeze, if it weren't for the fact that the smell of salt was replaced by the upturned earth smelling scent of rain, and the coolness of the night shadows my face instead of the warming sun. The rain fell against the top part of a half open window, the sound like tiny glass beads dropping from the sky.

Every now and then there would be an electric pause, an unnatural stillness in the air, and Theo would tighten in his bed, his breath stopping like he was afraid to stop the stillness, his head freezing on the pillow so the ruffling of his hair wouldn't brush against the cloth. Then there would be the rumbling clap of thunder, and he would relax.

Unlike every other small kid in the world, Theo isn't scared of thunder. He's scared of lightning.

I sigh and turn over in my bed on the floor, the blanket beneath me twisting with my body. The wind blows against my face again, fully this time. It feels like cold water flowing over my newly shaven head. It's a weird feeling to have things run over your head, especially if you're not used to having an empty space there, where there used to be a nice mat of hair to keep that place, right before your head turns into your neck, warm.

I hear Theo gasp again as another bright flash I can't see illuminates the room.

–

"What makes you think you can boss me around?"

Hellboy grinned, his lips stretching over his teeth in something that would be malicious if it weren't for the fact that he was trying to hold back something almost like a giggle. "I actually work here, while you, Meggie, are in training. Which means you are going to be a new BPRD agent, which means, by my nature, I must act like a complete ass to you."

I snorted, shaking my head. We were in the garbage truck going to some abandoned hotel from the 1940's. There had been a few calls coming in about it being haunted or werewolf infested or slimy and disgusting, or something like that. If it were any of those things, I really wouldn't be surprised if it were all three. It was a typical day, really.

I leaned back on the slightly uncomfortable seats in the garbage truck and put my hands behind my head. I could feel the tiny ringlets of hair that were growing in. The individual hairs felt almost like wire. I wondered for a moment whether that old wives tale was true, and after you shave hair off it grows in more thickly. Because really, if it is true, I'll have more of an afro then Theo has, and he's the one who actually wants one.

I remember before we left, me and Theo had had an argument. Well, sort of. Could it really be an argument if one of the people wasn't even really talking and the other one was talking calmly? But he had wanted to come with me. He's always been interested in the supernatural, but it seems to have almost strengthened lately. I would have thought it would have been the reverse, ever since what had happened to him a few weeks ago. But he seems crazy about the supernatural now, in such a calmly terrifying way that it worries me almost constantly, almost as if he wants to prove himself after what Jason did…

No, don't think about that…

A short stab of pain goes through my skull, and I put a finger lightly to my temple without thinking about it. I've been getting headaches lately. I think it's from not getting much sleep. I've been having nightmares lately as well...

I shut my eyes and nothing changes around me, and I take a deep breath. I hear the ripple of air through paper as Liz sucks on her cigarette. I hear pages turning where Abe is trying to find something about the history of the hotel. I hear HB almost silently humming the song for the TV show that some crazy guy just made about his comic…

There is a click as the driver of the truck switches petals and stops, and my head moves to the side slightly with the stopping of motion.

"All right, time to go." Hellboy says, standing up. He starts to actually whistle the theme song now, even if he doesn't seem to notice. Liz grins, trying not to laugh.

Writer: Yeah yeah, all sequels have a chapter like this, alright? I couldn't really avoid it. I'm just putting this chapter in so people remember things from the first story, and those who haven't read that one yet and are just reading the sequel (shame shame) can know what the hell is going on. Thanks again to Epalladino, for reviewing all the time in the last story, and to everyone else for constructive reviews in the last story. As for the people who have read all the way through and still aren't reviewing, what's going on? Ok, just kidding. Well, I'll write more soon. Probably. Well, I will write more, at any rate.


	2. Some Form of Alchemy

Writer: Yes, this is a rewrite, I accidentally deleted the first version.

"Liz, did you even hear that saying, the one with the dark storm?"

There is an explosion of gun fire off to my right, and a howling scream like metal being scraped against metal. A huge furry leg-like thing flies over us, inches from the tops of our heads, before crashing into the wall on the far side.

"What?" Liz says, clearly distracted. She turns and lifts her gun, firing a row of bullets in the direction of what seems to be some humongous furry octopus which Hellboy has dubbed 'Fluffy'. As if my life could get any weirder.

"You know that saying, 'In every dark storm, try to find the golden lining?" I say. Liz suddenly grabs my arm and jerks me down as another leg whips by us. I hear a sound like a small cannon going off and another scream of rage from the monster as Hellboy joins in on the fight. I stand up quickly, embarrassed about having to be saved. Liz rises next to me, and I hear a click as she prepares her gun.

I stand rather uselessly at her side. I keep telling the people here that I should be able to carry a gun too. They say I can't have one because I'm _blind_, but I personally think that they're all just being bigots.

Still, it's not like I'm completely useless.

I scrunch up my face, and for a moment a stab of pain goes through my head. I ignore it, concentrating on the 'image' in my mind. In a moment, another leg swings our way, and Liz tenses next to me, but there is a crash; I swear; like the gods colliding, and the monster lets out a screeching howl as it is stopped by a huge troll-like thing.

"Where's you make it stand?" Liz asks, taking all this in stride.

"A bit to your left, it's holding back the leg in the middle. But do you know the saying?" I ask. The sound of bullets whizzing through the air fills the space surrounding me like rain. I'm careful not to move for a moment, for fear of getting one lodged in my already throbbing skull.

"I think it's dark horizon. Where'd you get 'dark storm?" Liz says. I grip her arm and yank her down on the ground, but it's too late. My head jerks backwards on my neck as another great 'leg' flies into our backs. Liz lets out a slight "huh!" of shock, and I back up quick, crawling backwards across the ground.

Liz quivers on the floor, and a moment later I hear a flare as fire leaps up on her arms. She's learning to control it a bit more, when I first came here, she would have completely been engulfed in flames, lost to the world. There's a clatter as her gun falls next to her. She has a more useful weapon.

I do too, but guns are pretty damn useful...

I grin, leaning forwards, slipping my fingers around the metal, warmed from use and probably also, being clutched by a burning hand.

"What do you mean by it though?" She asked. I freeze. I'd thought she was facing away from me. Her voice sounds like flares going off when she's on fire. "With the saying, how is that relevant to anything right now?"

I grin, lifting the gun slowly so that it only slightly clinks against the dirty concrete beneath us. "What I mean is, that has to be the stupidest thing I've ever heard of "Got a lot of terrible things bearing down on you? Ignore it all and find something good, it will all go away!"

Liz snorted, fire literally flaring off her face. "You sound like a late night comedy show. _Way_ late, I should add."

I let out a sigh of fake annoyance, slowly sneaking backwards. Then I happily lift my newly found weapon (haha on you, bigots!) and concentrate for a moment.

I press the trigger happily and of course, the bullets hit their mark. I scrunch up my face though as I listen to the bullet flying through. At first it seems to hit fur, but after a moment, it's almost as though it's going through metal, rows of metal.

"What the hell are you doing?!"

I leap about a foot into the air as one certain fish man yanks the gun out of my hands. "You can't use this!" He shouts. We duck at the same time, both yanking down at the other's shoulders as another huge furry leg, now on fire, flies over our heads.

"But it's not fair, even Myers gets one! Why can't I have weapons of destruction?" I whine.

Abe seems amused. "Well, Myers can-"

He's cut short though. Through the whistling of bullets, I hear the rustling, clanking, burning sound of another leg flying at us from right behind Abe.

I pretty much tackle him, and the leg flies over us, the fire sizzling on the rubber heal of my right shoe. I pick myself up off Abe's chest and reach down to feel the melted end of my boot. "Furry calamari bastard!" I shout in rage.

Abe picks himself up rather quickly. He seems embarrassed, and turns his head away slightly. He's probably just embarrassed about being saved. I hate when that happens, being saved.

Ok, that sounded a little bad...

"Run!" I hear Liz shout over all the noise. Abe and I immediately get up and back away quickly, along with the 12 or so human agents who came along to stand along the wall and be useless. The man behind my is actually shaking in his boots. And holding a loaded gun. Bad combination there...

And then the room is filled with fire.

It's like being in a brick oven, flames are shooting everywhere, the fire seeming to come to life. I completely loose track of where Liz is. When she's all aflame like this, I get confused, any one of these flames dancing along the floor right now could have her in the center, could be her, and I wouldn't know it.

Abe is facing the direction of the monster, staring fixedly at the mass of burning flesh and metal. Hellboy is beginning to walk towards Liz slowly, the flames circling around him harmlessly, and though they were nothing more then leaves blowing in the wind.

The man behind me steps back slightly, shaking still. And I feel anger shoot through me as I realize he's not pointing his gun at the monster.

He's pointing it at Liz. It's not what we're fighting that terrifies him so much, though I do believe that has a part in it. He's terrified of all of us.

Not that that's particularly a strange thing.

The creature rises up on all it's legs, so it's like a flaming furry building, jutting out to the roof.

It lets out a mumbling roar, and then sucks in one last shuddering breath as the flames swirl around it, through it.

Hellboy reaches Liz and embraces her, the flames slowly die around us, small fires still clinging to smaller existence, though dying since what fed them has stopped.

There is a deathly almost-silence. The only thing I can hear is the breath of the people around me, the slight gurgling noise made by the thing one Abe's neck, and the tiny flares of the existing fires. Then someone screams as a whirring whistle fills the air. The creature falls in an almost graceful ark it seems, the sound of it winding through the room like the sound of a tornado, and then there is a great crumbling noise. Flesh is falling from it, chunks of it raining down as they distach themselves from what seems to be a huge hunk of scrap metal. The metal itself hits the ground, making a thousand screeching cries ring through the air. The smell of iron and steel fills the room. Metal is sliding over the stone floor like an avalanche.

Hellboy and Liz, who are closest, run for their lives, while everyone else backs away quickly. There is a never-ending crumbling, screeching crash. Ton upon ton of metal is falling from where the creature was standing, along with the sickly thumps of it's decaying sewn together flesh falling to the ground.

And then in an instant, it's all over. Small pieces of metal still roll slowly down the sides of the great pile, through the small holes in the mountain. Other then that though, the world is completely silent. For a moment, anyway.

"Holy shi-" Hellboy begins to say.

Then there is a last clanking scrape as a sheet of metal falls away. There are collective gasps, someone makes an oath. Some of the older agents simply groan in a 'here we go again' kind of way.

"What is it?" A newer agent says with, I must admit, more curiosity then fear.

"You, go get it!" The terrified man behind me shouts. Anger comes across almost everyone in the room now. He's got his gun pointed at Hellboy. I'll have to tell them later about him pointing it at Liz, he might get fired.

Hellboy lets out something almost like a growl. "Sure, but maybe you could ask nicely?" He says sarcastically, stepping towards the metal mountain. "You guys and gonna make us do suicide missions soon, flying planes into democrat's houses, putting bombs in us..."

"Just do it!"

By now I'm pretty much shaking Abe, asking "What is it?! What is it?!"

He places a hand on my shoulder, probably to make me stop strangling his arm and swinging him back and forth.

"It was inside the monster." he says quietly. "It looks like a human body, burnt. But the thing it, there are all these markings on it, and the markings haven't stopped burning yet. I can't be sure right now, but it looks like some form of alchemy. I think this human was controlling the monster..."

Hellboy crawls up the piles of trashed metal. I hear an odd, almost crunching noise as he lifts something up. He holds it away from his face as small bits of ash fall from it, a sound like sand against the metal below him. "Ok, where do you want it?" He asks sarcastically.

Then there is a collective cry as the thing in Hellboy's hand starts to heat up, and, I'm guessing by the way everyone throws their hands up over their eyes, glow extremely bright. The temperature of the body in his hand is so hot it seems almost more like it was lightning them just left over fire from Liz.

Then, as suddenly as it started, it stopped. The body grey cold. But there wasn't even time for a moment of calm. The thing in Hellboy's hand did something like an explosion without fire.

Ash flew around the room in a radiating blow like a wave of fire from a bomb going off. It went across me like a sand storm, and I lifted my arms over my face, coughing as the ash of the human filled my mouth, my eyes, my nose and lungs. It covered me. I screamed, and another shot of pain went through my head, this one however, didn't just go away. It throbbed there.

My own flesh crawled as this ash fell over it, as though it would slip off my body from decay if I even moved. I couldn't breath, I couldn't talk, I couldn't think. And my head, my head felt like someone had drilled a hole in it. People were screaming around me as well, Abe had backed into the wall like me, and was coughing and spitting out the ash.

We all waited for it to be over. And in a moment I noticed that there was a noise that wasn't just the screams of the other people around me or even myself. Throughout it all a terrible, physcotic and happy, terrifyingly happy laughter echoed through the room, worse then the screams of the monster it's body had been contained in.

Writer: Sorry about that, I accidentally deleted the original chapter. I have to start saving things on my computer... anyway, for those who have just started reading this, the original version of this chapter was better, sorry to those who care who's review replies were lost.


	3. Runaway

Writer: Ok, I'm serious now, who wants to be my beta reader? In case you haven't noticed, and I don't know where you've been if you haven't, I am not the best at spelling and grammar and really all there is to do with writing besides the creativity and story telling part. Please, I'm begging you, someone be my beta reader...

Right, so I sound kind of desperate and pathetic right now...

Disclaimer: Owning Hellboy would be fun, wouldn't it? Notice I said 'would be fun' instead of 'is fun'

The soapy water feels like oil sliding over and through my fingers. I scrub it onto my face and arms, still shaking slightly. It burns my eyes, which I forgot weren't closed, and I wince slightly. My mouth opens for a moment, and a taste bitter as blood flys across the top ridges of it as a small drip of soap falls into my mouth.

"It seems as though whatever they did to the monster to make it alive they did to the man inside, which is why he didn't seem to die when his body did. I couldn't find anything to explain the markings..."

I shiver again. My flesh still crawls from the ash on me. I've had an issue with dead things touching me for the last few months. I mean, more of an issue then is normal. Experience will do that to you.

The truck hits a bump in the road, and there's a slight rattle of anything small that is not securely tied or buckled or locked down. Abe puts out a hand and steadies his cart of books distractedly. The bastard who pointed a gun at Liz and threatened Hellboy is sitting next to me. Normally I'd be more disgusted, try to get away, make sure he knows I hate him, that kind of thing. But I'm too busy thinking about other things now. And besides, knowing Hellboy, he might not even be here that long anyway.

I hear a squawking of a radio from the driver's at the front of the truck, but think nothing of it. Until I hear a single name spoken by the gravely, static voice.

"What, what about Theo?" I say, sitting up.

"What?" Hellboy says, staring blankly at me.

"No one said anything about Theo..." Liz says, staring at me.

It's then I remember this is coming from the front of the truck on a quiet little radio belonging to someone else, so really, they didn't hear me, and these people don't even understand what I'm talking about.

"No, on the radio in the front, the driver's radio, the guy mentioned Theo..." I say distractedly, standing up.

But I don't take another step, because an agent from the front has already walked back to where we're all sitting.

"Yeah, uh, Margaret O'Donald?" A voice with a heavy southern accent says. "Yeah, you're little brother, Theo, he's gone."

I don't really know how to respond to this. Somewhere in the back of my mind, there's a little, sarcastic, and thoroughly annoyed and worried voice that says "Again?!" But for me, emotions and fear and anything that could get in my way harden, and my whole world goes cold.

"What, again?!" Hellboy shouts angrily. He turns to me "You don't have any other relatives, do you?"

"You've got to be kidding me." Liz says, fear and anger creeping into her voice.

"What? Oh, no folks, he wasn't captured like last time, he left. They got some video footage of him climbing out the small window at the top of the wall. He stacked a lot of things up apparently, and now he actually started going down a street right near this one, so we're gonna drive down there and see if we can pick him up." The driver said.

I have an incredibly wonderful feeling of my worst fears being untrue, and a large amount of rage and overprotectiveness that just seems to come with me. "Well why the hell didn't you say 'Theo's left on his own' or something!" I shout. I'd been worried about large creepy monsters, now all I evidently had to worry about was kidnappers, muggers, child molesters, that kind of thing. What a load off.

"Where would he be going?" Abe questioned as the driver went back to his seat.

"He's probably trying to come down here to help, I told him he couldn't go and he got pretty upset."

I sit down, my head arching backwards to lean against the cool metal of the inside of the truck. I feel the wheels turning, the vibrations of each gravel and pebble on the road. I wish I could see then, maybe I could look out the windows in the front. But it's just a fleeting thought. Wishing does nothing for you but cause pain, and besides, no matter how much I don't like people having to do things for you, I know someone will say something if they see Theo.

"There he is." Abe says, just as I think this. I quickly stand up, and then promptly fall over again as the truck screeches to a halt. I hear small footsteps through the walls, and then they stop and turn to face us.

I stand again, some random agent gripping my shoulder to help me up, and then I quickly begin to almost run to the back, lifting the door just slight enough so that Theo can crawl through.

I hear his sneakers squeaking slightly against the metal, and the rustle of back pack straps.

"Theo, what the hell were you thinking!" I start immediately, giving him something between and strangulation and a hug. He doesn't say anything. He doesn't even lift his arms.

I run my fingers over his face, checking for scratches, and he doesn't move. I feel his bottom lip quivering.

"Hey kiddo, are you alright? Wow, you know, it took me years to learn how to escape. But really, at least I escaped to get away from having to fight monsters, I think you've got it a little backwards." Hellboy says in a surprisingly softer voice.

Theo doesn't say anything. He goes over to the bench and sits down on it, next to the empty space where I'd been sitting. Liz reaches over and ruffles his hair, a soft sound as his frizzy spirals rub together. The creepy agent moves away, and walks over to sit somewhere else.

I hear the thump of his back pack hitting the floor, and I go over and sit down next to him. "I mean, seriously Theo, you didn't even bring Shark Bate. What would you have done if you were in danger? Not that Shark Bate would have really done anything but whimper, but still... and what did you bring in the bag?" I question, reaching forwards and picking up his back pack.

Abe has been as silent as Theo so far, looking at him directly. I can't tell what either one of them are thinking. I know now that Abe would never hurt Theo at all, even; or maybe especially; through his mind, but it still freaks me out.

I unzip the pack, the sound of it with the same resounding annoyance as rubbing your teeth together. As I reach into it, I don't find the expected X-Men comic books 'for reference' or some stupid little toy star wars sword that's supposed to be a weapon. There's cloths, and underwear, and boxes of food, like crackers that won't go bad.

I know what he packed for. I taught him how to do it, should he ever need to.

"Theo?" I ask quietly.

"I'm sorry, Meggie." He says quietly. Everyone has gone silent around us.

"But why would you run away Theo, did something bad happen at the BPRD...?"

"They used me... Other monsters and people could do it again."

I face him blankly, my mouth hanging open.

"Others could use me to get to you."

Oh.

Writer: Review please. If confused, re read the last few chapters of Thelodus. Here are the answers to reviews:

Hobbit Babe: I did E-mail you, thank you, and please call her Meg, not Maggie. Thanks a lot for your review and advice!

Epalladino: Thank you, I agree about the jerk agent, and thanks for the review, and all the other ones too!

9insane writers: People, if this is not your review, you may want to skip this so you don't get too confused.

#7. Wow, I really did keep #7 awake...  
#5. Yeah, that's funny.  
#9. Hello.  
#3. Interesting...  
#4. That is the title.  
#9. What?  
#4: Apology accepted.  
#9: Hello leader.  
#1: Oh... sorry.  
#6. That would be interesting.  
#9: That's what it's there for, reading!  
#2: If reading this, you probably just found out.  
#8: True enough.  
#9: Rude yet true.  
#8: Thanks, but I found grammar problems. Again, anyone, find me a beta reader! Please!  
#5: Sometimes sitting back and reading the story will help you find out.  
#2: If not, the story might be over. Maybe, anyway... hmm...  
#9: Interesting.  
#1: Isn't the world already run by powers of insanity?  
#9: Ok, thank you.  
ALL #'S: COOL!!

#6: I believe it!  
#7: Next chapters coming, so if you want to you can wake up.

God, I have no life( no offense to 9insane writers, she has 9 lives)... anyhow, review everyone, and please, beta reader! Someone! Anyone! (Well, almost anyone... depends on the amount of mistakes you have while saying you'll be my beta reader...)


	4. Life Forms

Writer: So, in the last chapter, I mentioned that Meg knew Abe was staring directly at Theo even though she can't see. Now, normally when I make Meg do things or notice things you'd think only seeing people could do and notice, I have there be some sound or vibration on the floor or something that tells her, and that way it's more obvious. Like this, this is what I should have put: "I hear the soft breath of rustling fabric coming from Abe as he leans forwards, putting the book back on the rolling shelf. His face seems to be boring onto Theo's small form..." I put something like that in it normally. I guess I just forgot to. Maybe I would have toned that down though, seems exaggerated. Thank you to Epalladino for reminding me about that, and for everyone reading this, I'm just going to say that with blind people, especially people who are born blind, they can really do absolutely anything a seeing person can do (if anyone says 'drive a car', yes, I know that's an exception) and there are ways to tell everything about a person from sound, probably more since people disguise their faces more then their voices. If you're blind, all your other senses are heightened, so you can hear things really well, like the mouth pulling back when people lie and wet hair squeaking against each strand. So, really Meg can do anything, and in this story she definitely believes it. Not that any of these are excuses for not putting in why she knows these things, most people don't know this about blind people and even if they do it's not good for a writer to leave out details like that. Well, here's the end of this long writer's note. Maybe I should just start saying "Here's story, go."

Disclaimer: ...I can't think of anything remotely witty to say. Hellboy's not mine...

I sit down on the couch with an oddly satisfying plunk as some bit of metal on the inside of the couch resoundingly bangs against another piece.   
Everything is silent in the world, or my world at least. I don't even know what to think anymore. I hear Abe swimming around inside his tank, a gurgling noise as the water moves so his body can push through it, and wonder vaguely if people can read your thoughts when even you don't know what they are.   
All I can think of is that little kid, my brother, turning his head away...  
"Sorry Meggie..."  
He shouldn't have to be sorry.  
Why do I keep him with me? It's not for him, obviously. It's for me. It's for stupid selfish monster and monster-attacking me. What the hell is wrong with me? How could I even think of keeping him here after what happened before. I had been considering sending him away, but then I convinced myself it was all solved, everything was solved because we had a place to stay. It was the place Theo had been kidnaped from to begin with, too.  
"Meg?"  
I lift my head quickly. I'll never get used to that. Always I'm expecting there to be foot steps before voices, not splashing and gurgling.  
"Hey, Abe."  
There's a long silence. Then I stand up awkwardly to turn the stupid pages to the flat blank paper books that he can read through a wall that's just as solid and claustrophobic as metal to me. God, I have to get rid of this stupid attitude. Seeing wouldn't do anything, anything to help me. But still, whenever I get into some depressed stage over something like this, it all goes back to what I definitely can't have. Sight. A normal life. Or, at times, fairly stupid things, like private islands or jets. No, not just those things were stupid. It was all stupid. I didn't need any of it.  
"Meg, I don't think Theo meant what you thought he did when he..." Abe starts through the glass. I hear a hand come up against the smooth surface for a moment, and my head turns away before I can think about it. I remember sobbing in a chair saying "no no no..."  
It makes me feel pretty stupid, remembering that. Don't take my mind, don't take my mind.  
There's a long pause that seems to stretch out for more time then it should, just this strange silence. I hear the tiny sounds that you find in libraries, the ticking of some old clock, the rustling of some small insect's wings in the corner. And then there's footsteps from outside, and Hellboy walks in just as a blaring yet somehow smooth voice comes over the loud speakers.  
"Code Red, Code Red..."  
"Why don't they yell "Code blue" or something? Hellboy mutters as he walks inside. "Or code white, or code brown, or code tan or some other color... do we know any green people?"   
I smile slightly. "They're being very discrimatory, you're right." I say with some slightly forced snicker. "So, what's the problem?" I need a distraction right now.  
Abe has already climbed out wherever that large fish tank thing lets him out, somewhere at the top, and has came down to join us. "Twice in one day?" He says sounding a little surprised.   
"The annoyingly large community of freaks beckons us, come on." Hellboy says, sarcasm positively dripping from the words.   
As we're walking down back outside to the truck, I hear smaller feet walking with us, behind Hellboy. I know he's trying to hide behind Hellboy's loud footsteps, but I still hear him shuffling along. I'm not saying anything though. If he's staying with us, he's not running away. I feel a twinge in my stomach though as I realize I'm not sure which one's worse.  
---  
"So, what's up now? Because really, it better be something good. This is kind of starting to piss me off."  
Abe turned and glanced at Liz, who was glaring coldly at Manning. Hellboy was standing next to her, wearing the same expression. Myers had somehow gotten out of coming here because of some relative or friend's birthday, something Hellboy had been incredibly angry at, especially since there had been occasions on his birthday when he still had to work. (well, his 'come to Earth' day, anyway.) For some reason Theo had abandoned standing behind Hellboy and now seemed to be glued to Abe's side, the small boy's hair brushing against his arm. He was staring pointedly at Abe, as though he were trying to tell him something, but Abe really wasn't prepared to deal with the wrath of Meg if he were to read her little brother's mind. Theo didn't seem to be thinking of this however. Abe blinked at him, and regretted it slightly a moment later when Theo nodded, as if he saw the small movement as some kind of sign, and turned away.  
Not reading people's minds was incredibly annoying.  
"Ok, everyone just be quiet for a while, I get it, no one is happy about having to go on another mission, but this one seems to be connected to the last one, so it's more like one mission continued." Manning said, quite obviously just as pissed off and tired as everyone else. "As soon as the alchemy corpse exploded, no less then seven calls came in at the local police station that people had seen a similar explosion here at exactly the same time, and there was no known reason for there to have been an explosion here. We wouldn't have even come, except that the local police wouldn't go in. Something about it being haunted. Which, while we're here, we could in fact check that out too."  
"No known reason? Are you sure there's not construction going on here? Because this is the city, there's always construction going on somewhere. Or maybe just a friendly gang of soon to be incarcerated kids. Just because we hear about it doesn't mean it's not a perfectly mundane coincidence." Hellboy said in a sarcastically hopeful voice. There were a few chuckles. Manning, with a strain, ignored him. Though a muscle did twitch in his eyebrow angrilly.  
"So we're just going to take a look around, make sure there's not another one of those freaks, and go back, got it?"  
There were a few collective mumbles and somebody sneezed.   
"Got it?!"  
"Yes sir." Shouted the human agents, minus Liz, and if she counted as one, Meg, who was standing in the corner of the truck. Her face was turned away from Theo, as though doing so would make her stop hearing him.  
The doors opened with a resounding clang, the metallic reflection of the lights in the truck flashed across Abe's vision for a moment. They piled out, Hellboy, as always, leading the way, but with much less spirit then was normal for him.   
The sight that met them was a dilapidated old apartment complex on a street that looked like someone had gone through it with paint bombs that exploded into words that Hellboy used and all sorts of nameless grime in every corner. The other agents ducked into the darkness of the inside of the apartment building, their frames fading to shadows for a moment. Theo tried to push his way out to the front, but Liz caught his arm and held him back. A small child coming didn't seem like the kind of idea Manning would approve of, and even besides that, if he had to be here, he should at least be out of the way in case there turned out to actually be something inside the old building.  
Shafts of light came down from the ceiling, showing themselves from the clouds of dust that seemed to rest on every layer of air. At first glance, it seemed obvious there had been some kind of explosion, there were rocks everywhere, crumbled into the floor like ashes, and old unused pipes fallen down. Almost every piece of visible metal was rusted through, looking as frail as the edges of burnt paper. It looked almost as though the core of the apartment building had rotted down like fruit, and by looking up you could see right up to the top, where there was a skylight shimmering in the waves of city heat from outside on what used to be a roof, the floors of the upper rooms crumbled away from age. The only problem was, there was simply too much of the walls and ceiling that had fallen down that they couldn't tell which part had recently exploded.  
"Ok, I've checked all three floors, there's nothing here." Hellboy said, looking up through the large hole down the middle of the building.   
Abe picked his way carefully through the debris, trying, and failing, to keep from stepping on many of the annoyingly sharp stones. He wondered vaguely why Hellboy managed to get specially made keyboards for computers and he still couldn't get any shoes.   
He turned his head instinctively as another bit of rock on the far side of the wall crumbled, and then blinked slowly at what he saw.  
There seemed to be some sort of design on the wall, in frayed and ancient paint. Great arching lines he could see behind where the small piece of rock had crumbled away, the paint appearing aged as though the drawing itself, whatever it was, had rusted like the many pipes littering the floor. Abe stared for an instant at the familiar symbol, the alchemy he had already seen that day.  
"I found something." Abe said, picking his way over to the wall. The other people in the room shuffled in his direction. Before he could stop him, Theo crawled over the rocks right up to the wall. Meg turned her face up sharply from where Liz was helping her across the field of shattered rock as Theo's footsteps raced by her.   
"What is it?" She asked Abe, the shell of her ear still facing where Theo had just ran by, so she spoke to him at a strange angle, as though someone had forcibly twisted her neck around.  
"It's some sort of design on the wall. I'm not sure, most of it is still covered, but it seems to be the same one on the corpse from... from..." Abe slowly dropped down on all fours, taking off his gloves quickly and placing his bare hand on the ground, ignoring the feeling of the small sand of rock sticking to his fingers like splinters as the overwhelming feeling of a presence came over him, a feeling like he was being stared at from eyes he couldn't see. "Does this place have a basement?" He said quietly, his fingers splayed out flat on the floor.  
"No. We got a blueprint of the place. It had a small underground room for storage and crap, but that was on the other side. Why, what is it?" Hellboy asked, picking his way over to where Abe was standing and staring down at the ground as though he could see through the rocks to what Abe was sensing.  
"Well... there are... life forms down there." Abe said, squinting slightly, and then abandoning this when he realized there really was no point in him squinting, it didn't do anything for him besides make the part of his eyes covered see things in blurred shadows. He wondering what exactly had inspired him to try for a moment, but it was incredibly irrelevant, so he abandoned this train of thought quickly, feeling the almost claustrophobic feeling of someone else, their emotions spinning through his head, practically pressuring his scull with extra thought.  
"Life forms? Like from old alien movies? Or are you just being dramatic about creepy humans or huge mindless monsters being controlled by the creepy humans, the usual kind of crap?" Hellboy asked, shifting his weight.  
"Wait, one of them is looking up at... I think they know we're-"  
He didn't get to finish his sentence though. He heard someone let out a cry and he looked up, realizing that the floor seemed to be rising up around him. He felt Theo's hand grab his shoulder, and then Theo himself falling on top of him when trying to pull him up didn't work. He looked up, seeing Liz's eyes widening as the rocks crumbled in a circle around his knees, Manning with his mouth hanging open, Meg with a look of utter confusion, and then he didn't see anything but a large red hand reaching up from behind him, trying to grab the floor above them in one swipe, rock rubbing against rock as he missed, reaching again to try to grip the surface world that was slowly slipping away from them. But it was too late, he heard a great rumbling sound as the rocks below him shot upwards in line, sliding along the inside of the floor like a snake, and filled in the hole where the floor he and Hellboy had been standing on had been. He fell, Theo still gripping him for dear life.  
"Not again, oh shit..." He heard Hellboy yell, the words echoing off the floor as walls on all sides of them as they were swallowed by an unknown darkness.

Writer: Ok, I need to apologize for a few things. The first one is I'm sorry for always leaving long Writer's notes. Another one is I'm sorry for pretty much abandoning this story for months. I'm also sorry that this story is really not as good as Thelodus #1. I'm just not enjoying writing this one as much as I did with Thelodus, and I think that's why this one isn't exactly written that well at all. Probably just because I hadn't reached any for of actual excitment in the plot yet though. (Also apalogising about shortness of chapters, there's a big long chapter coming soon, don't worry.)


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